Brad’s story
Vertebrogenic pain, Intracept ablation
Interventional pain treatments help Brad get back to work
At his job in the construction industry, Brad has to lift heavy things. He's up on ladders every day. So, when pain in his lower back started restricting his strength and mobility, it made an impact.
"I lift windows and doors all day, but they made me stop lifting heavy things," says Brad, who is in his late 30s. "I kind of felt useless. It was definitely taking a toll on my personal life as well."
Epidural steroid injections provided only temporary relief. Brad's primary care physician referred him to Mayfield Brain & Spine. A consultation with a surgical team determined that he was not a good candidate for surgery, so Brad was referred to Dr. Rachel Boggus, an interventional pain specialist at Mayfield's Springboro office. Dr. Boggus recommended a newer procedure called Intracept to help relieve his pain.
Intracept is often used if nonsurgical options like medications, injections or physical therapy don't show results. It targets the basivertebral nerves, which run through the bone of each vertebra and branch off to supply each endplate. In Brad's case, it would interrupt pain signals from the bony endplates to the brain, providing more consistent relief.
"I agreed to it because anything is better than sleeping in pain," Brad says. "It was helping me get up and move a lot more. I've been feeling kind of like my old healthy self."
Dr. Boggus says Brad's pain was coming from a damaged disc at the L4-L5 levels of his spine, leaking towards the adjacent endplates. She agreed that he did not need traditional spine surgery because of factors including his young age, the fact that there was no narrowing of the spinal canal, and no sign of significant disc herniation.
Instead, the Intracept procedure deadens the basivertebral nerve. It is generally performed in a hospital or ambulatory surgery center.
"Brad still has that same pathology in his back, but we deadened a lot of it," Dr. Boggus says.
Interventional pain procedures such as epidural steroid injections, radiofrequency ablations or Intracept are only a few of the tools that Mayfield physicians can use for a patient who presents with back pain. In Brad's case, he also received a subsequent injection in a different area where a knot of muscle had become painful – called a trigger point injection.
"The body is pretty smart," Dr. Boggus says. "When it knows that you have a disc protrusion, it can tighten the muscles to allow that disc to heal."
Nonsurgical treatments also include physical therapy to help a patient reduce pain and build strength. In fact, nearly two-thirds of Mayfield's spine cases are resolved without surgery. If needed, Mayfield offers a full range of spine surgery options. There are minimally invasive techniques that don't require a hospital stay, up to larger operations for patients with a spinal deformity such as scoliosis, an unnatural side-to-side curvature of the spine.
"Intracept is one of many procedures we can use to help people with back pain," Dr. Boggus says.
Brad is pleased with the results so far. He's getting his strength back and is back to full activity at work.
"Two weeks later, I was feeling like myself again," he says. "I feel great about it."
~ Cliff Peale
Hope Story Disclaimer -"Brad's Story" is about one patient's health-care experience. Please bear in mind that because every patient is unique, individual patients may respond to treatment in different ways. Results are influenced by many factors and may vary from patient to patient.
Click here to call 513-221-1100